Are You a Tough Mudder?

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WSIL Sports

Story Created:
Jul 9, 2013 at 10:44 PM CDT

Story Updated:
Jul 10, 2013 at 2:25 PM CDT

MT. VERNON -- It's probably the toughest event on the planet, that's Tough Mudder's moto, and it's exactly what Jacob Boone is looking for. The Mt. Vernon native is preparing to compete in his first Tough Mudder this September in St. Louis.

"I think most people look at it like it's for crazy people, they don't understand why people want to do it," Boone said.

Tough Mudder is not for the weary. The event features more than 20 obstacles set up on a 10-12 mile course. The design was orchestrated by the British Special Forces and will test your all-around stregth, stamina and above all, mental toughness. Roughly a quarter of the people who start the race don't finish.

"Whether it hurts, you come out bleeding or bloody or muddy or whatever, it's really just to challenge yourself and really just to survive it," Boone added.

Training for an event like the Mudder can be difficult. To prepare, Boone has created a unique workout routine at Funxional Fitness in Mt. Vernon that combines strength training and cardio. Gym owner Drew Millwood has seen a big increase in the number of people interested in running obstacle course races in the last year. He currently has 15 clients signed up to run the Tough Mudder.

"It wasn't necessarily a goal of ours to do obstacle course training, but since a lot of our training already overlaps, we started pushing more and more of it," Millwood said.

Tough Mudder is known for its unique obstacles that often include running over fire, army crawling through a mud pit with barbed wire overhead and sprinting through a field of live wires, carrying as much as 10,000 volts of electric shock.

"I'm not crazy about getting shocked at all," Boone said. "But at the same time, they say if it excites you and it scares you at the same time, you should probably do it and that's kind of how I look at this."